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No frills airline IndiGo, which reported it sixth annual profiit in fiscal 2014, will take on lease 12 Airbus A320 planes from Tigerair to support its expansion plan.
Currently, IndiGo has 81 Airbus A320 planes and the airline operates some 500 flights daily. Between December 2012 and now it has added 15 aircraft.
In 2005, IndiGo placed an order for 100 Airbus A320s followed by another order for 180 planes (150 A320neos and 30 A320s) in 2011. This is the first time that IndiGo is taking planes on sub lease from another airline
Growing competition in domestic market with the revamp of Jet Airways and entry of two new domestic airlines -AirAsia and Vistara (still to commence operations) has led IndiGo to aggresively expand its fleet.
Singapore-based Tigerair announced today it has reached an agreement with IndiGo for subleasing of its 12 planes.
The airline said the 12 planes will be progressively delivered to IndiGo over a period of six months commencing October 2014. Each aircraft will be subleased for between three and four years at a discount to the original lease rates, Tigerair said.
Most of these aircraft were previously operated by Tigerair Philippines and Tigerair Mandala and had been returned to the group upon its divestment of Tigerair Philippines in March 2014 and Tigerair Mandala’s cessation of operations in July 2014.
Last month IndiGo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) for financing of 30 Airbus planes valued $ 2.6 billion. The airline did not disclose when it will complete induction of the 30 planes.
